Daniel Hale Williams

The Pennsylvania native was one of the first physicians in the U.S. to perform open-heart surgery in 1893. In 1891, he also founded the Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the first racially integrated nursing and intern program in the U.S.

The heart surgery at Provident, which his patient survived for the next twenty years, is referred to as "the first successful heart surgery" by Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1913, Williams was elected as the only African-American charter member of the American College of Surgeons.

Williams received honorary degrees from Howard and Wilberforce Universities, was named a charter member of the American College of Surgeons, and was a member of the Chicago Surgical Society.

A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed at U.S. Route 22 eastbound (Blair St., 300 block), Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to commemorate his accomplishments and mark his boyhood home.

Williams died of a stroke in Idlewild, Michigan on August 4, 1931.